JULY "The Second Of July" [CD, Digipak]

By this time, anyone with an interest in psychedelia that stretches beyond the Beatles or maybe Strawberry Alarm Clock (at a pinch), knows who July is. Well, at least they know that a band called July put out a super rare album that is considered by many to be one of the pinnacles of the psychedelic era. There's no way to overstate the excellence of the album, with its eerie sound, Indian-influenced chord sequences, studio trickery (tape loops/phasing), and heavily reverb-laden vocals. But that's not the story we're here to tell. Even before that quintessential psychedelic album was made, band leader Tom Newman was experimenting with home recording equipment. In 1967, he installed basic recording facilities in the bedroom of his flat in an old Victorian house in Ealing. There, he and guitarist Peter Cook tried out ideas, coming up with many of the standout songs from the July album. The demos they recorded display the kind of confidence that Newman feels was lacking in the album proper (yes, the ultra- famous psychedelic classic album!) that they recorded in 1968. Let's go back to the near-beginning of it all, to a flat in a Victorian house in Ealing, and listen in on demos recorded with DIY alacrity by a studio whiz, tracks which will change the face of psychedelia, eventually, after decades of obscurity.